AirNZ to trial Travel Pass smartphone app on Sydney-Auckland flights
Qantas is also said to be looking at the Travel Pass app in readiness for when international flights resume.
By David Flynn, February 22 2021
Air New Zealand will use flights between Auckland and Sydney to trial a smartphone app which will verify that passengers have been vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19.
The Kiwi carrier will join a growing roster of airlines adopting the Travel Pass app developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as a 'health passport', alongside Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad.
Qantas is also believed to be looking at Travel Pass along with other similar apps which function as a "health wallet". As previously reported, the airline has suggested that vaccination will be compulsory for most travellers, citing widespread support by 87% of flyers surveyed.
The AirNZ trial will run for three weeks across April, with the app free to download for Apple and Android devices. Air crew as well as passengers "will be invited to join the trial", indicating that it won't be mandatory.
How AirNZ's Travel Pass app will work
Passengers will be able to create a digital health wallet linked to their e-passport. Once they have been tested and/or vaccinated, labs will securely send that data straight to the app, without being stored on a central database.
IATA maintains its app "has been developed with the highest levels of data privacy and security, so passengers always remain in control of their COVID-19 health information."
The app then checks the destination's requirements for travel against the data, and passengers who meet those travel requirements will be given the green tick to travel.
IATA's Travel Pass app aims to become a global standard among airlines.
"Once borders reopen, travel is going to look very different, with customers' health data needing to be verified at check-in," says Air New Zealand Chief Digital Officer Jennifer Sepull, who describes the app as "essentially like having a digital health certificate that can be easily and securely shared with airlines."
"This will give customers peace of mind that they meet all travel requirements for the different countries around the world before they even get to the airport. By using the app, customers can have confidence that everyone onboard meets the same government health requirements they do."
The airline is also in discussions with government agencies on the options for validation of COVID-19 testing and vaccination.
New Zealand, which has been in the global forefront of successfully dealing with COVID, began its nationwide vaccination program on the weekend but expects it will take a full year to inoculate the country's population of five million, compared to an October 2021 target set for Australia's 25 million citizens.
Also read: Australian PM flags 'vaccine passport' for international travel
This article is published under license from Bloomberg Media: the original article can be viewed here
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
19 Oct 2019
Total posts 3
Great idea
I certainly want to be sitting next to someone who has been vaccinated
on a 24 hour flight to London
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 1242
I have a Medicare app on my phone with my vaccination history, will they be linked in anyway or yet another duplication whereby doctors and pharmacists have to upload to different systems.
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 337
all well and good for those of us who have a phone with apps but those phones cost silly money.
04 May 2015
Total posts 267
You can buy an Android phone from Australia Post for $99, that can run apps: hardly "silly money".
(The latest iPhones at $2500+, however, are more in that category.)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 May 2018
Total posts 14
The latest iPhone starts at $1400
QFF
16 May 2016
Total posts 65
Many of these apps being developed globally, but still require some sort of uniform framework for how government's (border control) will actually access the data.
What happens if your phone battery is dead at check-in/arrival?? Will travelers be holding their phones up to the immigration window?? Process when travelling with young children....? List goes on
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
14 Jan 2014
Total posts 326
In the UK, the government has said it WON’T be issuing a vaccination passport or any sort of confirmation of vaccination except a letter from your GP confirming you have been vaccinated!!
How will that work with this app? I’ve already had my first jab of the Pfizer vaccine and besides a VERY sore arm for four days (I could literally not lift my arm above my shoulder for four days it was that painful), I’ve had no side effects.
I’m keen to get travelling again and visit my family in Singapore and the UAE, and was hoping that the vaccination would open that up. Now I’m not that sure!! A GP letter can be knocked up on any old desktop, so how is that gonna hold up as proof?
Typical Bumbling Boris and his nitwit cohorts of Tory idiots to mess up the finer points of an otherwise brilliant vaccination program (BECAUSE it was run by the NHS and NOT farmed out to some well connected Tory lard arse donor, like the £22 BILLION disaster that is our Track and Trace system). Ok, political rant over.
I JUST wanna get on a flight and turn left on boarding a flight again!! Is that too much to ask?
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